The automatically releasing seat belt anchor of the instant invention has been designed to release the driver and/or passengers of a vehicle, in a time delayed manner, in response to more than minimal tensioning of the seat belt assembly of the driver of the vehicle. If a plurality of seat belt assemblies within the same vehicle are to be of the automatically releasing type, they are all operatively connected to the time delay seat belt releasing structure of the seat belt for the driver of the vehicle. In addition, the seat belt releasing structure includes manually operable override control.
Various forms of automatically releasing seat belt anchor structures have been heretofore designed and include structure for releasing the associated seat belt from an anchored condition in a time delay manner responsive to tensioning of the associated seat belt beyond a predetermined minimum. However, these automatic seat belt releasing mechanisms have all been operatively associated with the anchor point of the associated seat belt in a manner such that secure anchoring of the seat belt, under various conditions, could be adversely affected by the automatic release mechanism. Examples of various forms of previously known automatic seat belt releasing assemblies are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,177,966, 3,235,930, 3,311,188, 3,961,680, 4,004,821 and 4,049,293.